mcrossley wrote:YShame Davis doesn't keep up with the technology like these innovators.

I don't disagree, but just by way of comment:

Davis's recent priorities have been (1) EM (which is an important and strongly-selling product but not, I know, very visible to the hobbyist market) and (2) weatherlink.com and I suspect these two projects have been their major R&D focus for the past 3-4 years. Davis are quite a small company by international standards and just don't have the development resource to have several large R&D strands running at the same time hence the lack of development on the Vue/VP2 lines. The lack of any credible competition in the same price range has also - I assume - meant that eg a VP2 replacement has not been an urgent priority.

I really don't have any inside info at all on new Davis products beyond broad generalities, but as speculation, pure and simple, I won't be surprised to see eg a ZigBee-based VP3-type station (maybe with a completely new name, maybe not) on the horizon. January has traditionally been an announcement time for Davis when the new catalogue usually comes out, but whether 2019 or 2020 might be in the frame I wouldn't like to say. If I had to guess, I'd expect the core sensor set to be carried over from the VP2 range, possibly with an improved and redesigned rain gauge. Whether or not Davis might have found a way to make an affordable ultrasonic anemometer is a total unknown - probably unlikely, but who knows? But wireless protocol, power supply etc might be much more like an EM node.

And if I had to speculate on console design, I'd go for an Envoy/console split with built-in logger and WiFi (and probably USB and/or RJ45 too), broadcasting a real-time page that eg tablet or phone could see directly and able to upload to wl.com and potentially elsewhere too. I'd still see a market for the display console for those who prefer a built-in display and this could benefit from the developments in LCD technology since the last design (20 years would that be?).

OK, there's quite a hostage to fortune for you.

Last edited by prodata on Fri 06 Jul 2018 3:39 pm, edited 3 times in total.